During the second term of the Clinton Administration, despite the signing into law of the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 (FQPA) on August 3, 1996, few initiatives were undertaken by the Administration on inerts. The Bush Administration, however, has begun a series of new initiatives that appear to be elevating inert issues to a new plateau. The new Bush initiative includes the following: 1) adding new resources to the inerts program within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); 2) denying the petitions from the State Attorneys General and the environmental groups to require the full disclosure of inerts on the label; 3) launching a discussion of a new risk assessment model for inerts; 4) focusing on the framework of a federal policy to provide data compensation for inerts; 5) making significant progress on the tolerance reassessment of inerts by completing 87 in 1999 and 287 in 2002 of some 825 food-use inerts that are required to be finalized by August 3, 2006 under FQPA; and, 6) encouraging an international dialogue on harmonization of inert policy within NAFTA, by facilitating the creation of the Non-Agricultural Working Group (NAWG).